In reply to:
Does this release support forward compatibility? Meaning I can connect a 4525 to a 2k or 3k AP?
If not, is that on the roadmap?
Even just compatibility with 3000s for me. It makes it screwed for us buying SMs now - and compatibility was one of the main promises by Cambium which made me choose ePMP over UBNT.
They never promised forward compatibility. After being in this industry for 20+ years, I have no expectations for any manufacturer to develop forward compatibility and given Cambium’s extremely limited resources I was surprised when they (somewhat secretly) added WiFi support (via CLI/SNMP) and legacy N support (still in beta) to e4k. IMHO, forward compatibility is not a reasonable thing to expect a manufacturer develop.
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Well - I’m just trying to be honestly helpful and explain why I’ll be buying less and less. You can argue what they did or didn’t say to me… but that was what I was told.
Regardless - Cambium deciding not to have 4525 & 4518 SMs working with our 3000APs is a fatal flaw in my opinion, and it does negatively impact purchases going forward. I’m not trying to be negative or bitchy, I’m just trying to be honestly helpful.
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It seems to me that it would be in Cambium’s interests to get 4525/4518 SMs working with 3000 APs, because that would enable us to use those SMs on our existing APs now, rather than having to keep using old radios for any replacements or new installs on those APs, which would result in us buying more new SMs (I have no intention of ever buying any more Force 300 SMs at this point).
But whatever, it is what it is. The current system at least lets us just swap out the APs to upgrade, without having to keep the old APs running until all the clients are replaced, like we did for our first few 4500s.
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This means we should plan to replace our ePMP3000 APs with ePMP4000 APs so they can receive the old equipment and migrate gradually.
Or
I can start purchasing SM 4xxx APs so they can connect to the old ePMP3000 APs.
What would be the right financial path?
You will need to replace your old ePMP AP’s with new ePMP 4500 AP’s and enable backwards compatibility mode (allows e3k SM’s to connection) or migration mode (which allows legacy N SM’s and e3k SM’s to connect, but is not optimized, and only intended for short term use).
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No, you can’t purchase 4518’s or 4525’s and use them interchangeably on both your 3000’s and on 4500 APs.
You’ll need to:
-
replace AP’s which you want to connect 4518 or 4525 clients on up to a 4500
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you’ll have to continue to purchase older Force 300 for your 3000 APs.
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Which 4XXX APs are you using in your migrations and which ones are giving you good results?
Are you already using the 6GHz spectrum? Or are you still using the saturated 5GHz spectrum?
We’re using the 4500 8x8 integrated and the 4500L’s combined with RFE asymmetrical horns and twist port adapters. We have not used the 4500 8x8 connectorized. The beamforming gains on the 4500 8x8 integrated are excellent.
We were an early adopter using 6GHz spectrum and it allows for a lot of larger channel width operations. Most of our AP’s are using 40 or 80MHz channel widths. We’re still using the 5GHz spectrum, but are limited to mostly 20 and 40MHz channel widths.
Am I not understanding the problem correctly ? Is this different from AC client radios connecting to N Access Points so long as the N AP’s had v4.5 or later on them ?
Eric,
For 20 years and being a fanboy, you must not pay attention closely.
Cambium developed and supported and continues to support forward compatibility with the 1k, 2k, 3k…
Also, at Wispapalooza last fall they were promising backward and forward compatibility with their planned EVO line.